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The Bride of Pendorric

by Victoria Holt

     

Favel Farrington has been living on the island of Capri with her artist father when Roc Pendorric, a handsome Englishman, arrives on vacation. Favel falls madly in love with him.  When her father suddenly drowns, she is bereft.  But Roc proposes and proceeds to take her back to the family's estate in Cornwall.

She is thrilled by her new home and her title, "the Bride of Pendorric". At the Pendorric home she meets a family such as she has never had...a sister-in-law and her husband and their twin daughters.  All seems serene until she becomes aware of strange things around the castle.  There are portraits of the Brides of Pendorric, all of whom died young and tragically.  She begins to doubt Roc's love and wonders whether she has been having too many accidents.

The Bride of Pendorric is the second of Victoria Holt's romances to be reissued by St Martin's.  This is a wonderful opportunity for a new generation of readers to become acquainted with Victoria Holt, who is truly the forerunner and architect of all those romantic suspense novels that came after. She established the tried and true formula:  handsome hero with a mysterious past, an innocent and usually impoverished heroine, a castle usually in Cornwall.  Although published more than 40 years ago, the writing is as fresh as though written today. The story is suspenseful and the atmosphere is brooding as well as romantic.

I read The Bride of Pendorric when it was first published and rereading it today it is as new and enjoyable as it was then.  It is commendable that St Martin's has reissued this as they did Mistress of Mellyn.  Let's hope more of Victoria Holt's titles will be reissued for our pleasure.

The Book

St Martin.s Griffin
June 9, 2009, originally published 1968
Paperback
0312384165 / 978-0312384166
Romantic suspense / Cornwall 1890's
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The Reviewer

Barbara Buhrer
Reviewed 2009
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© 2009 MyShelf.com